This invention relates to systems for purifying and sterilizing air in an enclosed room, and is more particularly directed to a room air sterilizer which may be mounted upon a wall of a room, for example, a hospital isolation room, a physician's office or a dentist's office. Due to recent outbreaks of highly infectious disease, such as tuberculosis, there has arisen a need for devices for filtering out particulates that carry diseasecausing microorganisms such as bacteria, virus, or spores. This need exists, for example, in places where the disease can easily spread from one person to another, such as in a prison hospital ward, an isolation room of a hospital or residence, or an office such as a dentist office, where there may be a high level of airborne particulates or aerosols that have become biocontaminants.
At present, so-called air "purifiers" can be of a media filter type or of an electrostatic type. However, neither type includes effective means to neutralize any biocontaminates. Ultraviolet sterilizer lamps are sometimes employed in health-care facilities, but these must be positioned somewhere in the room away from the patient, so that their radiation will not fall directly on a patient or another person. This limits their effectiveness, as they are generally out of the normal airflow path.